The "Bucharest 9" meeting of NATO's eastern wing countries kicked off in Poland today, Wednesday, in the presence of US President Joe Biden, with the aim of showing security support for them after Moscow suspended its participation in a basic arms control treaty.
Biden said in a speech - before the meeting - that (President Vladimir) Putin made a mistake by suspending Russia's participation in the "New START" treaty to limit nuclear weapons.
Biden referred to Finland's membership in NATO, and stressed that the nine countries participating in the meeting remain "the front line of our collective defence."
Yesterday, Tuesday, Putin suspended his country's participation in the New START treaty, which was concluded in 2010 to limit the number of strategic nuclear warheads that Russia and the United States can deploy, and warned that Moscow could resume nuclear tests.
For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, "We have never been united as members of the alliance as we are today, and we will preserve every inch of NATO territory."
Stoltenberg stressed that it was necessary to "break the cycle of Russian aggression," adding, "We must maintain and intensify our support for Ukraine and give it what it needs to win."
"We don't know when this war will end, but when it does, we have to make sure that history does not repeat itself," Stoltenberg said.
The meeting of the eastern wing of the alliance was devoted to discussing support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, and to confirm mutual commitments within NATO.
The meeting includes countries from central and eastern Europe, namely Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
The Kremlin says it views NATO, which could soon expand to include Sweden and Finland, as an existential threat to Russia.